Integrated circuit chips (IC's), of the type to which the present invention pertains, are usually of rectangular shape having a central area containing the integrated circuit. FIG. 1 illustrates such a prior art IC device which includes an IC chip 10 attached to a lead frame pad 12 in the usual manner. A plurality of terminal contact fingers 14 are spaced about the periphery of the pad 12. A series of connector wires 16 electrically interconnect the fingers 14 to terminal bond pads 18 which are disposed on the IC chip 10 about its periphery. A central area 20 of rectangular shape, which contains the integrated circuit of the device, is shown enclosed by a dashed line having sides 22. The individual terminal bond pads 18 are interconnected to the integrated circuit contained within the central area 20 via the peripheral circuits 30. The peripheral circuits 30, in the present case input/output circuits, are arranged in a rectangular shape and disposed between the sides 22 of the central area 20 and the bond pads 18 as shown in FIG. 1. The peripheral circuits 30 are limited to the area of the IC chip 10 which is directly adjacent the side 22 because of the need to prevent inadvertent overlap of the circuits within the corner areas 32 of the chip. The physical layout of the chip is usually generated by a computer system which expects the peripheral circuits 30 to be arranged in approximate rectangular or elongated shapes. The elongated shaped circuits 30 are further arranged so that their approximate longitudinal axes, one of which is indicated at 34 in FIG. 1, are substantially perpendicular to the sides 22. It is readily apparent, by examination of FIG. 1, that two circuits 30a which are mutually perpendicular and adjacent a corner area 32, may not invade that corner area without overlap of the two circuits. To obviate this potential problem, it has become customary in the industry to utilize a computer system for generating the chip layouts which is programmed to avoid placing these peripheral circuits 30 within the corner areas 32. As a result of this, some of the connector wires 16 are inordinately long, especially those connector wires that are attached to contact fingers 14 that are located close to the corners of the chip 10. These inordinately long connector wires are prone to failure due to breaking or shorting against adjacent wires when the finished device is subjected to vibrational loads in use.
One way to alleviate this problem is to distribute the terminal bond pads 18 along the periphery of the chip so that appropriate pads are placed closer to the corners of the chip within the corner areas 32. This presents another problem however. The terminal bond pad 18 is usually included in the layout of the peripheral circuit 30, and therefore, the two are fabricated together in the same process. Should the terminal bond pad 18 be remotely located with respect to its associated peripheral circuit 30, it would no longer be practical to include both in the same layout because to do so would necessarily render each standard peripheral circuit 30 unique. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this would be undesirable for a number of reasons. What must be done is, the terminal bond pad 18 fabricated in its remote position by a process separate from that used to fabricate the associated circuit 30. This, of course, adds to the complexity and cost of manufacturing the device.